The Supreme Court and National Security: After Justice Stevens

The president will nominate a liberal, of course. But he could nominate someone who believes in judicial restraint in the war on terror.

By

John Yoo

Updated April 17, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET

On April 14, 1943, a young Navy intelligence officer named John Paul Stevens listened in on the radio traffic of American pilots on a secret mission. President Franklin Roosevelt had sent them to intercept and shoot down the plane carrying Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the planner of the surprise Pearl Harbor attack and the leader of Japanese naval forces in the Pacific.

Admiral Chester Nimitz leapt at the chance to take out Yamamoto. He wired Admiral William Halsey, the Navy commander for the South Pacific:...